Fight Aging! Newsletter, February 12th 2018
In conclusion, most experimental data on immune changes with aging show a decline in many immune parameters when compared to young healthy subjects. The bulk of these changes is termed immunosenescence. Immunosenescence has been considered for some time as detrimental because it often leads to subclinical accumulation of pro-inflammatory factors and inflammaging. Together, immunosenescence and inflammaging are suggested to stand at the origin of most of the diseases of the elderly, such as infections, cancer, autoimmune disorders, and chronic inflammatory diseases. However, an increasing number of gerontologists have chall...
Source: Fight Aging! - February 11, 2018 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
How Old is a Transplanted Organ?
Heterochronic parabiosis involves joining the circulatory system of two animals, one old, one young, in order to observe the results. At a high level, the older individual exhibits reversal of some aspects of aging, and the young individual exhibits acceleration of some aspects of aging. The details are complex, and still debated in many cases, however. Researchers see this phenomenon as one of the more effective paths forward to identifying the important age-related changes in the environment of signals generated by cells that find their way into the bloodstream. A more effective approach would be to repair the underlying...
Source: Fight Aging! - February 8, 2018 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs
Fight Aging! Newsletter, February 5th 2018
In this study, we tested the hypothesis that Gbp1 plays a role in regulating immunometabolism and senescence of macrophages. We found that Gbp1 was mainly expressed in macrophages, but not adipocytes in response to IFNγ/LPS stimulation; Gbp1 expression was significantly decreased in inguinal white adipose tissue (iWAT) of high-fat diet (HFD)-fed and aged mice. We also observed that downregulation of Gbp1 in macrophages resulted in M1 polarization and impairment of mitochondrial respiratory function possibly via disrupting mitophagy activity. Moreover, macrophages with downregulated Gbp1 displayed dampened glycolysis and e...
Source: Fight Aging! - February 4, 2018 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
U.S. Morbidity and Mortality Caused by the Jahi McMath Case: Less Confidence in Brain Death Is a Deterrent to Organ Donation
Surgery professor Marty Sellers and colleagues at Emory have a forthcoming piece on "Deterrents to Organ Donation."
They recount the familiar story that because of a shortage of organs, "patients often wait years for transplantation, are at increased risk of dying on the waitlist, and have more advanced organ failure at the time of transplantation – which increases the risk of post-transplant morbidity/mortality, length of hospital stay/resource utilization, and post-transplant recovery time.
The authors further note that "a major factor limiting the number of transplants performed is lack of authorization (cons...
Source: blog.bioethics.net - January 27, 2018 Category: Medical Ethics Authors: Thaddeus Mason Pope, JD, PhD Tags: Health Care syndicated Source Type: blogs
Fight Aging! Newsletter, January 22nd 2018
In conclusion, death is a natural part of human existence, but human progress is essentially a story of overcoming undesirable natural limits. In the near future, technological progress might make it possible to stop natural biological death. Should humankind embrace such technology? Yes: Even though such technology would not be without risks, the risks are almost certainly manageable. The benefits of ending natural death, on the other hand, are immense. Death is an obstacle that is slowing down human progress. If we remove that obstacle, humankind could increase the speed of both its moral and its epistemic progress.
...
Source: Fight Aging! - January 21, 2018 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
Deceased Organ Donors Exceed 10,000 for First Time
During 2017, the number of deceased organ donors in the United States topped 10,000 for the first time, according to preliminary data from United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS), which serves as the national Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN) under federal contract.
For the year, organs were recovered from 10,281 donors, representing a 3.1 percent increase over 2016 and an increase of 27 percent since 2007.
A total of 34,768 organ transplants were performed in 2017 using organs from both deceased and living donors, according to preliminary data. This total is a 3.4 percent increase over 2016 and ma...
Source: blog.bioethics.net - January 21, 2018 Category: Medical Ethics Authors: Thaddeus Mason Pope, JD, PhD Tags: Health Care syndicated Source Type: blogs
Fight Aging! Newsletter, January 8th 2018
Fight Aging! provides a weekly digest of news and commentary for thousands of subscribers interested in the latest longevity science: progress towards the medical control of aging in order to prevent age-related frailty, suffering, and disease, as well as improvements in the present understanding of what works and what doesn't work when it comes to extending healthy life. Expect to see summaries of recent advances in medical research, news from the scientific community, advocacy and fundraising initiatives to help speed work on the repair and reversal of aging, links to online resources, and much more.
This content is...
Source: Fight Aging! - January 7, 2018 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
Commercial Success Would Solve Most of the Challenges of the Cryonics Community
Cryonics refers to the long-term storage of people at liquid nitrogen temperatures, starting as close to clinical death as possible, and involving cryoprotectant-induced vitrification of tissues rather than freezing. The goal is preservation of the fine structure of the brain, as that is where the data of the mind is encoded. Given a good enough preservation, a sufficient storage of the mind, then the possibility of later restoration exists, based on the advances in biotechnology and molecular nanotechnology foreseen for the coming century. Cryonics is thus an important service, albeit one that receives little attention an...
Source: Fight Aging! - January 4, 2018 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Activism, Advocacy and Education Source Type: blogs
Fight Aging! Newsletter, December 25th 2017
Fight Aging! provides a weekly digest of news and commentary for thousands of subscribers interested in the latest longevity science: progress towards the medical control of aging in order to prevent age-related frailty, suffering, and disease, as well as improvements in the present understanding of what works and what doesn't work when it comes to extending healthy life. Expect to see summaries of recent advances in medical research, news from the scientific community, advocacy and fundraising initiatives to help speed work on the repair and reversal of aging, links to online resources, and much more.
This content is...
Source: Fight Aging! - December 24, 2017 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
Fight Aging! Newsletter, December 4th 2017
In this study, we integrated atomic force microscopy (AFM) and molecular approaches to determine whether increased stiffness of aortic VSMCs in hypertensive rats is ROCK-dependent, and whether the anti-hypertensive effect of ROCK inhibitors contributes to the reduction of aortic stiffness via changing VSMC mechanical properties.
Despite a widely held belief that aortic stiffening is associated with changes in extracellular matrix proteins and endothelial dysfunction, our recent studies demonstrated that intrinsic stiffening of aortic VSMCs, independent of VSMC proliferation and migration, is an important contributo...
Source: Fight Aging! - December 3, 2017 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
Fight Aging! Newsletter, November 20th 2017
This study cohort is a healthy subset of the EpiPath cohort, excluding all participants with acute or chronic diseases. With a mediation analysis we examined whether CMV titers may account for immunosenescence observed in ELA.
In this study, we have shown that ELA is associated with higher levels of T cell senescence in healthy participants. Not only did we find a higher number of senescent cells (CD57+), these cells also expressed higher levels of CD57, a cell surface marker for senescence, and were more cytotoxic in ELA compared to controls. Control participants with high CMV titers showed a higher number of senes...
Source: Fight Aging! - November 19, 2017 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
Jewish Guide to Practical Medical Decision Making
Check out
this new 368-page
book from Rabbi Jason Weiner: Jewish Guide to Practical
Medical Decision Making.
Due to rapid advances in the medical field, existing books on Jewish medical
ethics are quickly becoming outdated. Jewish
Guide to Practical Medical Decision Making seeks to remedy that by
presenting the most contemporary medical information and rabbinic rulings in an
accessible, user-friendly manner.
Rabbi Weiner addresses a broad range of medical circumstances such as surrogacy
and egg donation, assisted suicide, and end-of-life decision making. Based on
his extensive training an...
Source: blog.bioethics.net - August 29, 2017 Category: Medical Ethics Authors: Thaddeus Mason Pope, JD, PhD Tags: Health Care syndicated Source Type: blogs
Fight Aging! Newsletter, August 7th 2017
Discussions of radical life extension, technological acceleration, and artificial general intelligence were far more fringe concerns back then than is now the case, but this growth in awareness isn't a coincidence. Visions slowly become reality because people work to make that happen. Technological progress is not accidental: it is led by our desires.
I should say that de Magalhães is here generous in not passing judgement on the value (or lack thereof) of most of the various ventures and classes of approach he surveys. But some approaches are definitely better than others, and to my eyes one the principal challeng...
Source: Fight Aging! - August 6, 2017 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
Fight Aging! Newsletter, July 17th 2017
This study aimed to estimate associations between combined measurements of BMI and waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) with mortality and incident coronary artery disease (CAD). This study followed 130,473 UK Biobank participants aged 60-69 years (baseline 2006-2010) for 8.3 years (n = 2974 deaths). Current smokers and individuals with recent or disease-associated (e.g., from dementia, heart failure, or cancer) weight loss were excluded, yielding a "healthier agers" group.
Ignoring WHR, the risk of mortality for overweight subjects was similar to that for normal-weight subjects. However, among normal-weight subjects, mortalit...
Source: Fight Aging! - July 16, 2017 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
Euthanasia & Organ Donation in Canada
National Post reports that since Canada decriminalized euthanasia in June 2016, 26 of the 338 patients who have died by lethal injection in Ontario chose to donate tissue or organs. Lethal injection, which causes cardiac death in two or three minutes, allows organs to be removed much more quickly than after natural death, which results in better organs for transplants. Organ retrieval after euthanasia is... // Read More » (Source: blog.bioethics.net)
Source: blog.bioethics.net - March 28, 2017 Category: Medical Ethics Authors: Janie Valentine Tags: Health Care bioethics syndicated Source Type: blogs
